MANUELA ROOSEVELT

Manuela Roosevelt is currently the Vice-President, Associate Publisher, and Editorial Director at Callaway Arts & Entertainment, a company that is at the forefront of art, culture, and entertainment, headquartered in New York City. Callaway creates and builds intellectual property in advanced digital technologies and executes it across a broad canvas of media, from books to television to apps to immersive experiences, collaborating with the world’s foremost visual artists, entertainment celebrities, and institutions.

Her recent editorial accomplishments include The Beatles: Get Back (Callaway, 2021) that debuted at #6 on The New York Times Hardcover Bestseller list, and is a collaboration with Apple Corps (Beatles’ management company), the film director Peter Jackson, and SONY MUSIC resulting in a book-documentary-music album trio on the last recording sessions of The Beatles for Let It Be that was streamed through Disney+ in multiple countries. The title also became a bestseller in the UK (Callaway) and Germany (Droemer-Knaur) with more than 350,000 copies sold in the US.

Manuela worked with the Bob Dylan archive, the Bob Dylan Music Company, authors and more than 20 essayists on Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine (Callaway, 2023), that debuted at #10 on The New York Times Hardcover Bestseller and The Times in the UK and is considered the magnum opus on Bob Dylan (international sales to date approx. 50,000).

She has also worked with Sean Scully, one of the world’s most renowned abstract artists, on a children’s tale written with his son Oisin Scully, Jack the Wolf (Callaway, 2024), the debut title in a series on artists creating art with a family member.

She worked with Radical Media in NY and Illuminarium in Las Vegas and Atlanta to bring the flower paintings of American iconic woman artist Georgia O’Keeffe to a 45-minute immersive 360-degree experience and is now working on pioneering narration with the most precise and accurate voice-cloning possible with today’s advanced AI technology on the memoir of a well-known deceased author.

Manuela and her family moved from Lugano back to the States. She founded SpringwoodMedia in Hyde Park, New York, a company that created digital immersive learning environments for academic studies. Worked collaboratively with the Medici Archive of the Grand Duchy in Florence and museums holding Leonardo da Vinci's artwork. Developed 40+ hour navigation websites for Renaissance studies, widely adopted as textbook alternatives by prestigious institutions like Marist College, NY; University of Virginia's Art History department; and Oxford College’s Digital Humanities.

Manuela moved from the San Francisco to her native Lugano, Switzerland where her second daughter was born. She established Springwood Publishing and co-published successful mainstream titles with bigger European and American publishers, such as The Secret Code (co-published with Taschen to become its #8 bestselling title of all time); Galileo Galilei: Renaissance Genius (co-published with Taschen), whilst consulting for museums and archives.

Manuela Roosevelt retired from the Batsford Publishing Group in London and moved to San Francisco, California. She established the Book Laboratory that co-created many successful titles, particularly for Chronicle Book's new GiftWorks, such as The Buddha Box, The Rumi Cards, and Rizzoli's calendar and gift sets, delivering excellent production values for book boxed sets at attractive retail prices.

The Labyrinth Publishing Group acquired Batsford publishing, a venerable English Publisher, and renamed itself Batsford Publishing Group.

Manuela oversaw the acquisition, the expansion of the shareholder base, and move from Batsford's Covent Garden traditional offices to Earls Court, while maintaining stable editorial oversight of the expanded lists that included main nonfiction trade, gardening, hobbies, children's titles.

Editorial Director of the Labyrinth Publishing Group overseeing Labyrinth Publishing trade nonfiction titles, Minotaur Publishing children’s list, and developing a catalogue of mainstream videos for sale at HMV and Virgin music stores

• Oversaw, inspired and supported creative team of writing and editing staff.
• Protected brand with robust quality control procedures to verify styles and foster culture focused on excellence.
• Enhanced editorial quality by implementing strict guidelines and thorough proofreading processes.
• Managed budgets for editorial projects, optimizing resource allocation for maximum efficiency.
• Managed resources for competing deadlines and kept multiple project teams on-track to meet challenging targets.
• Recruited and supervised writers producing high-volume content and worked effectively with both in-house and freelance professionals.
• Coordinated with advertisers to create mutually beneficial campaigns that promoted their products while maintaining editorial integrity.

Editorial Director and Owner of Labyrinth Publishing (Zurich and Florence), a book creation house that published series of titles for all Bertelsmann book clubs across Europe in the subject of body-mind-spirit, and co-published bestselling titles such as The Illustrated World’s Religions by Huston Smith and The Illustrated Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell and many more with main American publishers such as Simon & Schuster; Doubleday; Scribner/Touchstone, etc

• Strategized creative content plans to deliver value to target audiences in alignment with company goals.
• Conducted regular competitor analysis to stay informed of market trends and identify opportunities for growth or differentiation.
• Developed and maintained strong relationships with clients, resulting in repeat business and referrals.
• Oversaw daily operations, ensuring all tasks were completed accurately and efficiently by team members.
• Implemented marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and attract new customers.
• Established a positive workplace culture that fostered employee engagement, collaboration, and loyalty.
• Achieved financial growth with strategic planning, cost control measures, and targeted marketing efforts.